History – Page 15 – iLearn Technology

World Digital Library

April 28, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2513 views

What it is: The World Digital Library is a collection of free primary materials from around the world. Students can search the World Digital Library for materials that will help them understand other cultures. Students can search for materials by place, topic, time period, or institution.

How to integrate World Digital Library into the classroom: This is an amazing collection of primary materials from around the world. This is truly like bringing museums from around the world into your classroom. Use the World Digital Library to illustrate lessons using an interactive whiteboard or projector. Students can use World Digital Library for research and to support projects they are working on. I love the look of World Digital Library, primary sources embeded in a map of the world. It helps students visualize where in the world the materials they are looking at came from.

Tips: Bookmark World Digital Library on the classroom computers for quick access. World Digital Library is multilingual, just choose your language before you begin searching!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using World Digital Library in your classroom.

Educational Videos

April 24, 2009Kelly Tenkely2 Comments3510 views

What it is: Educational videos can be expensive, out of date, or hard to find. Happily there are a few sites working to make it easier to access educational videos for free. PBS has always been known for their great educational material. They have hosted videos on their site for some time but they were not located in one place where they could be easily sorted through. Now PBS has PBS video, all the great PBS material in one easy-to-search place. You can browse these videos by program, topic, or keyword search. All videos are on demand, I have been impressed with the quality! Another great website for on demand free videos is American History in Video by History Education. American History in Video has more than 5,000 titles in its collection! The videos allow students to analyze historical events, and look at the events over time through commercial and governmental newsreels, archival footage, public affairs footage, and important documentaries. Students and teachers can search videos by year, historical event, people, places, subjects, and by keyword. This is an outstanding collection of free on demand history video!

How to integrate Educational Videos into the classroom: Video is an amazing medium for teaching. It brings textbooks to life and helps students to relate to history and science in new ways. Kids often find history boring and I believe one of the reasons is that they haven’t had enough life experiences to relate what they are learning to prior knowledge. Video helps them make connections that reading a textbook can’t do. Use these videos as an introduction to learning, as a reinforcement during learning, or embedded in lessons.

Tips: Always make sure you watch a video in its entirety before showing it to a class. Sometimes content may not be age appropriate or as on topic as you would have guessed.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Educational Videos in your classroom.

APTE Curious Minds Click

April 23, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment1991 views

What it is: The APTE Curious Minds Click website lets students and teachers create e-puzzles that can be sent and played online. You can create your own online Crosswords, Word Scrambles, Anagrams, and Secret Codes. These puzzles can then be played online and sent as an email.

How to integrate APTE Curious Minds Click into the classroom: Create your own online puzzles for students to play based on any curriculum or subject you are studying. Puzzles are a fun way for students to practice new vocabulary, spelling words, and new content. Students can create their own puzzles based on curriculum for classmates to solve. Students will love creating puzzles for their classmates and solving puzzles that have been created for them.

Tips: In addition to creating your own puzzles, you can solve puzzles that others have created.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using APTE Curious Minds Click in your classroom.

Virtual Apple 2: Oregon Trail

March 13, 2009Kelly Tenkely4 Comments7369 views

What it is: Those of you who were in school or teaching just as schools were starting to get computer labs will appreciate this post. Remember Oregon Trail? The original Oregon Trail? It still exists!! Virtual Apple 2 has an online space where you can play games from the Apple 2 days. I loved Oregon Trail as a student and now it is back in all of its glory. No need for a mouse you type in a number to make selections, or “Y” for yes and “N” for no. I can’t tell you how excited I was to find this great game just the way I remember it! For those of you not familiar with Oregon Trail, this is a game designed to teach kids about pioneer life. The player assumes the role of wagon leader and builds a team and purchases supplies that will help to make it from Independence Missouri to Oregon by way of covered wagon in 1848. It was a great role playing game that had a lot of learning packed in!

How to integrate Virtual Apple 2: Oregon Trail into the classroom: Students today aren’t nearly as impressed with this game as I was/am. At first, they will not appreciate playing the game for the sake of playing the game. In my classroom, I like to introduce this site to students to give them an idea of the history of technology and what computer graphics and games looked like when I was a student. They enjoy comparing and contrasting Apple 2 Oregon Trail with the games that they like to play today. This site is a great way to start discussions with students about where technology has come from and where they predict it will go. (What will games look like when they have kids?) After knowing the history of this game, my students appreciate it SO much more. They really get into it and ask the same questions I asked as a kid, “what is yellow fever?”. The difference being that today they can go to Wikipedia or World Book Online and discover their own answers.

Tips: Virtual Apple 2 has all of those games that you remember playing when having a colored screen instead of orange or green was really something. Take a look through and re-discover those games again!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Oregon Trail in your classroom.

ActivInspire

March 5, 2009Kelly Tenkely3 Comments20206 views

What it is: ActivInspire is a new software from Promethean that is free! The free edition is a ‘personal’ license that can be used by anyone. The ActivInspire software works with ANY interactive whiteboard (SMART, Mimio, Wiimote Whiteboard, eBeam, etc.) and even for those of you who do not have an interactive whiteboard, use the software with just a computer and projector! The Promethean Planet website has thousands of lessons and resources that are free to access and can be used with ActivInspire to engage your students. ActivInspire has two launch options, the first is to launch in Primary function. In Primary, ActivInspire is very user friendly for primary elementary students. The second option is to launch in Studio with tools that are perfect for older students. ActivInspire works on Windows, Mac, and Linux based machines. Some of the goodies in ActivInspire include interactive protractors, rulers, clocks, grids, and more. New power tools include intelligent shapes and handwriting recognition. There are themed templates for fast and easy lesson building. ActivInspire supports flash files that can be embeded in Flipchart lessons. ActivInspire can open SMART and PowerPoint files, making it quick and easy to pick up any lesson and improve it.

How to integrate ActivInspire into the classroom: ActivInspire is software that can keep students engaged in any lesson in your curriculum. The software is incredibly intuitive and makes it easy to create amazing interactive lessons. The lessons (flipcharts) can be saved and shared among colleagues. Begin building a library of interactive lessons for your students. Be sure to visit Promethean Planet for thousands of ready made (FREE) flipcharts and activities to use with the ActivInspire software.

Tips: To see the possiblities of the ActivInspire software, take a look at Flipcharts created by the developers of ActivInspire. Promethean also has a great set of support tutorials that will have you up and running in no time!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using ActivInspire in your classroom.

Fliggo

March 2, 2009Kelly Tenkely4 Comments2454 views

What it is: Ever wish you could create your own video sharing site? Fliggo is your answer. Create a video sharing site in under 5 minutes easily! Sharing student created videos on YouTube is not always an option in the school system. YouTube may be blocked, you may have concerns about other video content, or the related videos that are presented to your students may be inappropriate. Fliggo is the answer. You can create a video sharing site for your school complete with school logo. Fliggo gives you control over who can post videos, who can comment, and how videos are approved. Fliggo is simple enough to use with elementary students!

How to integrate Fliggo into the classroom: Fliggo is the perfect place to upload student created video. I have students turn every Keynote presentation into a video so that we can share it online. Students love sharing their work with the world. I get emails from parents, grandparents, and other family members about how excited they are to see what their kids are working on in school. This is an awesome way to showcase student work. Students can comment on other student work encouraging an authentic classroom community. Fliggo is easy enough for elementary students to upload their own videos if you choose to allow member uploaded video. In my classroom, students create commercials on a variety of topics. I like using commercials because students understand their purpose (to advertise), they are short, and they quickly get the point across. Students have created commercials in my classroom for a multiude of subjects and topics.

Tips: I love the idea of creating a school “YouTube” type site, your students and parents will love it too!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Fliggo in your classroom.

The National Archives Experience: Digital Vaults

February 17, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3830 views

What it is: Digital Vaults reminds me of Museum Box that I wrote about a few weeks ago. The National Archives has put together an amazing site where students can create digital content with primary resources. Students can search photographs, documents, and other records and collect them. Students can use collected items to create their own digital poster or to make a movie. Students can also create a Pathway Challenge. In a challenge, students create a series of clues that show relationships between photographs, documents and other records. Others can take part in these Pathways Challenges. There are also ready made challenges that students can take part in, I just took the Lincoln challenge. Clues are given and students have to find a record that matches the clue. Very cool!

How to integrate Digital Vaults into the classroom: This is a truly incredible way for students to interact with history. While the site may be too hard for primary elementary students to use on their own, the Lincoln Pathway Challenge could be used with an interactive whiteboard with the teacher guiding the challenge. Teachers could also create a unique challenge that directly matches your curriculum for students to complete. The poster, movie, and create your own Pathway Challenge are an engaging way for students to learn about history in a hands on approach. Give students a direction to go and then give them time to collect resources, and create their digital history vault. This is not history as I remember it…in fact, I’m sure I would know much, much more about history if I were involved in my learning this way! This is so much better than learning history from an outdated text book, the Pathway Challenges are like virtual field trips through history.

Tips: I learned about this awesome website from Free Technology for Teachers, a great blog!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Digital Vaults in your classroom.

Awesome Stories

February 11, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3604 views

What it is: Awesome Stories is a neat website that looks to me like it could be the future of text books. Awesome Stories has great primary source materials separated by categories such as biographies, disasters, trials, flicks, history, inspiration, religion and sports. Throughout the text there are hyperlinks to additional content. The links are separated by color so you know that when you see a certain color it will open a primary source image, video, narration, slide shows, artifact, manuscript, document, etc. You can become a member of Awesome Stories for free, when you do you will gain access to additional features like an extensive image data base, narrated stories, lesson plans, and a free newsletter from Awesome Stories. This is essentially an interactive textbook. I love that the site hits different learning styles in its presentation of information.

How to integrate Awesome Stories into the classroom: Awesome Stories would be a great supplement to traditional text books. It makes finding primary source materials easy! With the audio clips, narration, video, and slide shows linked right within the reading material, students are going to get a much richer understanding of a topic or material being studied. I love that struggling readers can have all the text narrated to read along with. Many of the videos, audio, and slide shows would be excellent to share with the whole class using a projector or interactive whiteboard.

Tips: Sign up for free to see the full scope of Awesome Stories, you will be amazed at the amount of content here! The lesson plans to use with the site are wonderful!

Leave a comment and share how you are using Awesome Stories in your classroom.

Jeopardy Labs

February 10, 2009Kelly Tenkely3 Comments4080 views

What it is: Jeopardy Labs is an awesome website that lets you build a Jeopardy game board without the use of Power Point! All that you have to do to start is enter a password so that others can’t edit your game. Then it is as simple as titling it, typing in categories and then entering questions and answers. This is really SO easy to use! You can also search through Jeopardy games created by others. You won’t be able to edit these but you may find a ready made game that fits your needs perfectly. Jeopardy Labs was created by Matt Johnson, an undergraduate at WSUV. Impressive!

How to integrate Jeopardy Labs into the classroom: Jeopardy Labs is a great way to review and practice class material in a fun, engaging way. Use Jeopardy Labs to help your kids study for a test, to review a unit, or just as a fun learning activity on a Friday afternoon. In the computer lab, I have used Jeopardy as a way to teach students how to perform searches. Students can Google the questions and the first team to find the correct answer wins the points.

Tips: Before you reinvent the wheel, browse through other Jeopardy games…someone may have already done the work for you!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Jeopardy Labs in your classroom.

Vista Zoo

February 6, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3105 views

What it is: Vista Zoo is a website where students can create incredible virtual tours of the world by combining pictures, video, audio, and objects in 3-D. The tours are uploaded and placed on a map. Tours can then be embeded into any website. Students can also sign up for their own Vista Zoo portal that they can customize and save their projects. Vista Zoo is also available on the iPhone and iPod touch (if you are so lucky to have a lab of them!)

How to integrate Vista Zoo into the classroom: Vista Zoo would be a neat way for students to display geography learning. Students could collect images in history or current images to embed in their maps to learn about a subject. Teachers can also create virtual tours for students to take individually or as a class with a projector or interactive whiteboard. This is a great way to teach geography and history, your visual students will love it! The ability to add audio and video makes these virtual field trips around the world pretty amazing. If your class has a pen pal class in another country, it would be fun for each group of students to create a virtual tour of their town for the pen pals to view.

Tips: Use Creative Commons images from Flickr or open stock images from a site like stock.xchng for images to embed.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Vista Zoo in your classroom.